Tokyo Nights
Life In Tokyo - Neil Stalnaker
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Friday, October 21, 2005
Did a little gig tonight at a small club in the west Ikebukuro area of Tokyo. It was my first time to play with guitarist Shinobu Ito. He has just returned from living in New York for 30 years. It was great to hear him and make music together. I can tell he has been living in the USA for a long time. He has that "thing" in his sound that you don't hear much in Tokyo. Although there are some technically good players here, they don't have that "thing" in their sound. Shinobu has it. I just hope he doesn't lose it after being here for a while. For those of you that don't live in Tokyo, I mentioned that the gig was in Ikebukuro. Ikebukuro has traditionally been labeled a "dangerous" area of Tokyo by most Japanese. There are a lot of foreigners (especially asian) in Ikebukuro and some mafia activity. Ikebukuro kind of has a New York "vibe". There are some "famous" jazz clubs in Tokyo that I haven't been able to do gigs in, unless I'm connected with somebody "famous". So, I do most of my jazz club gigs around the Ikebukuro area. I've been welcomed by most of the clubs in Ikebukuro. The Ikebukuro clubs don't have that sterile, snubbish attitude about jazz like some of the other places. They have more soul...more earthy...more real. At this gig tonight, people were clapping along with us, yelling at phrases they enjoyed and even getting up and dancing on some of the tunes. That would NEVER happen at a lot of clubs around Tokyo. So, the gig tonight wasn't at a "famous" place. In fact, there are probably less than 10 musicians in Tokyo that even know about the place. However, I accomplished my mission, which was to have the band enjoy themselves and to have the customers enjoy themselves. The rest I leave for others to deal with.
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